Greetings Our Altavian Family!

How is it possible that it’s already October and 2021 is winding down? The month is only half over but so much good has already happened! Here’s a bit of a recap.

At the end of September, Crown Tournament was held in Dun Or. It was a lovely day and Griffith honorably represented both Altavia and his consort Amabel on the field. The end of the day saw Sir Valrik facing off with then-knight-vigilant Optimus in the finals with Sir Valrik winning the day for Lady Drada. We look forward to the Coronation of Their Royal Highnesses in January in Nordwache! Start thinking of some largesse we can create for them over the next couple of months!

With one week of down time (and a whole lotta prep), it was then time to head off to Great Western War! Altavia had a large and friendly encampment and it was a great time! A chief highlight of event, of course, was Baron (Master) Niko’s vigil and Pelican elevation! So many of you spent your Friday evening helping out at and attending the vigil and we marched into court as a barony to support our most awesome baron. I know he has many personal thank yous for this but I also want to thank you for helping create a very special couple of days for a very worthy person!

We’ve also got a whole bunch going on for the rest of October as well! Tomorrow sees the return of our unofficial game nights at Guildhall, which I hope can become a regular thing again. On Saturday, you have a choice of traveling to Dreibergen to participate in the Caid Archery and Thrown Weapons Open or sticking closer to home and helping create some largesse for the upcoming baronial investiture in Dreibergen.

Next Tuesday will be Arts and Sciences where I will teach how to make simple wire-wrapped rings for both personal tokens and largesse and then on Saturday, October 30, we will travel out to Dreibergen to celebrate their anniversary and see the investiture of their new Baron and Baroness, Ramvoldus and Kungund, and the baronial retirement of our dear Cousins, Logan and Tyne. We hope to see a really good-sized crew out there with us!

In closing, we would like to ask for everyone’s patience and flexibility when the new vaccine/testing requirements gointo effect on October 30. We will discuss that at greater length later in the meeting but we simply ask for patience as we figure out how this will work on the baronial level. Just know that all of this is to ensure we can keep playing safely and as comfortably as possible. We’ve gotten the band fully back together…let’s keep it that way!

Yours with much love and in service to the Dream,

Baron Nikolaos Phaistos
Baroness Briana MacCabe

Happy Fall Y’all!

August was still a relatively quiet month with only three events: Calafia’s Greatest Warrior (which His Excellency attended), HRM Katherine’s Festival of the Rose in Naevehjem which saw a small but mighty Altavian contingent and some hi-jinks involving His Excellency, and finally Nordwache Pirate Tourney which His Excellency also attended. Closer to home we also had many wonderful fighter practices and an excellent class on leather mask making taught by Amabel.

September started of with Highland “Not a War” and while neither His Excellency or I were able to attend, I believe we were well-represented by Griffith and Amabel. Last weekend was Caid Rapier Open up in Darach and it was a lovely day! Thank you to everyone that came out to fight, to serve, or just to hang out with us in the lovely Camarillo weather!

Coming up this weekend is Angels Virtual Anniversary. I haven’t seen an event posting yet but we’ll make sure to repost it in the baronial group as soon as it’s up.

After that it’s “all war prep, all the time!” as Great Western War is quickly approaching! If you’ve been waiting until the last minute to pre-reg, that last minute is now! Pre-reg closes at the end of the day tomorrow and you MUST be pre-regged to attend war, even as a day tripper. Please contact me if you run into any issues with the registration system. We’ll talk about some of the war prep opportunities coming up during officer reports and we hope to see all of you there. His Excellency’s vigil and Pelican ceremony will be at this war and I know it would mean so much to him to see you there!

We’ll discuss what’s going on for Agincourt, still tentatively scheduled for the end of October, a bit later in the meeting.

I know we’re beginning to sound like a broken record here but His Excellency and I really want to thank the entire populace and especially our officers and court and guard for your endless patience and resiliency during these crazy times that have gone on for far longer than anyone predicted or hoped. We know how frustrating and, frankly, scary it can be to not know if you get to do what you love or if you feel safe doing it. We realize that people’s comfort level with attending events has and will continue to evolve. Please know that there is absolutely no shaming in doing what is right for you and we will love you no matter when we get to see you in person again, be that next week or next year.

Be safe, be happy, be loved.

YIS,

Baron Nikolaos Phaistos

Baroness Briana MacCabe

Happy August, Altavia!

The latter half of July was just as exciting as the first part with our first large tournament back, Queen’s Champion down in Gyldenholt! We had several competitors on both the armored and rapier field and so many people hanging out with Altavia that we ended up with some satellite pop-ups around the dragon wing. Thank you to everyone that came and hung out with us or dropped by to say “Hi!”; it was a truly wonderful day.

We also had our first in-person Arts & Sciences class back at the Proto-Cathedral of St. Mary’s. Arranged and taught by Allesandra, we had a fun evening of learning to eave chainmaille and even some of the children of the church’s clergy got in on the fun. Thank you from being an awesome teacher, Alessandra!

Looking ahead to what is coming up for the rest of the month, Festival of the Rose for Her Royal Majesty Queen Katherine will take place on August 21 in Naevehjem. His Excellency and I will both attend and if you are looking to carpool to the event, let us know and we will help you arrange something. Come share your art in celebration of our beautiful Queen!

After that is Nordwache’s Pirate Tourney on August 28 and Highland “Not-Quite-a-War” on September 4. I am not certain if His Excellency and I are planning on attending either, but we can still help arrange carpooling if you are interested. Caid Rapier Open is also coming up in mid-September in Darach and I can bet Altavia will have some solid representation there…possibly including my first attempt at tourney fighting, yikes!

A little further up the road is Crown Tourney in September and I know we have at least one couple throwing their hats in the ring from Altavia so that is exciting! Crown will be in Dun Or and the dragon wing will be out with plenty of Altavia banners and bling, so please come join us as we look to the future of Caid.

Finally, it is time to prep for two big events in October: GWW and Agincourt/Caid Archery Open. If you plan on attending GWW and camping with Altavia and you haven’t yet registered, please do so as soon as possible. Everyone must pre-reg this year (even day trippers) and registration closes on September 15. I’m sure we’ll be talking more about Agincourt later in the meeting, but we are going to need an event steward that can work with the event steward for Caid Archery Open to make sure everything runs smoothly. Just a reminder that due to the combining of events, Agincourt will be on a Saturday this year, not a Sunday.

In closing, His Excellency and I would like to thank everyone that came out to last night’s EPIC fighter practice (and celebration of His Excellency’s birthday). I’m sure Meliora and Sibylla have an exact count, but I heard we had between 60-70 people there at one point and a count of rapier fighters came up to 23! It was so nice to see so many happy people all in one place and we hope we can have many more like that in the future!

Yours in Service, Always.

Baron Nikolaos Phaistos

Baroness Briana MacCabe

Greetings Altavia!

We are live again and practices have been happening for a month now. They have been well attended and lots of fun. Thank you to all the marshals, seneschals and chatelaines for keeping these days well-planned and following all the new and old guidelines properly.

Speaking of guidelines, we have been instructed by the Kingdom and Society to enforce certain rules at practices. Although pre-registration is no longer required, we still need a COVID tracing method. We will be continuing with the Google form for tracing purposes and people will be required to fill the form out either before or during practices.

Also, Blue cards are continued (this is an old rule) to be required for everyone at every event, class or practice. If you don’t have a blue card either physically or online, you can sign a waiver on site. This waiver is different from the COVID tracing Google form.

We had Coronation! It was great! We saw many friends for the first time in a year and a half, and it was like we never been parted. People hugged and talked and smiled and shared their love and friendship with each other. It was spectacular. Altavia had a strong presence as we processed with our presentation.

Thank you all who made largess for the kingdom. It was very well received, and very much appreciated. The games, bags and fans were beautiful and very well made. Thank you all once again for your Arts and Sciences talents and your giving nature.

On that topic, Arts and Sciences begins live this month with a chainmail class on the last Tuesday of the month. Look for a Facebook event soon.

Finally, we unfortunately could not secure the site reservation for QC Archery and Thrown Weapons for July 18th, so, in conjunction with TRM, the Kingdom Seneschal and the Kingdom Scheduler, we have postponed it to August 1st tentatively. No worries. We will have this event…eventually.

Good luck to all competitors in the upcoming events this and next month: QC Armor, Rapier, Unarmored, Archery, Thrown Weapons and FOTR Arts and Sciences! Know that all of Altavia is behind you and encouraging you to do your best.

Yours in Service,

Baron Nikolaos Phaistos

Baroness Briana MacCabe